Thanksgiving Day in San Francisco!

"There are a thousand viewpoints from the viewtiful city."

~Herb Caen

Ocean Beach with Seal Rock and the Cliff House

It's been awhile since I've been home to San Francisco, so I planned a trip to visit Shep. I was able to get a pretty good deal on a flight over Thanksgiving weekend, so it was a fun brother/sister holiday weekend. I arrived late Wednesday night, so sleeping in on Thanksgiving day was at the top of our to-do list!

Em and Shep with Seal Rock in the background

After spending the morning sleeping in and relaxing (and a gourmet breakfast of egg mushroom scramble and turkey sausage), we set out for a walk down to Ocean Beach and up and around Land's End.

Em and Shep

We didn't walk all the way to Favorite Place (named by Mom back when we were kids), but we got a great 6-mile walk in that afternoon and watched the sun setting along the Pacific. Beautiful and refreshing.

Can you ever get enough of this view?

Shep making fun of all my picture-taking with my scarf wrapped around my head

After our walk, we made our way back home and Shep got to work making our Thanksgiving dinner. New York steaks, roasted yellow squash, asparagus with bacon and parmesan, and brown rice. Absolutely delicious. And our Thanksgiving "pie" came in the form of vanilla It's Its. Yum! A perfect San Francisco Thanksgiving! Thanks, Shep!

Steps: 14,164
Miles: 6.46
Stairs: 32 floors

Germany (and France) 2014. Coming Right Up.

"It is magical to get together with friends you have a long history with, who know you from parts of your life others have never seen. What a blessing good friends are; past, present, and future."

~unknown

Have you had enough fashion posts lately? Have you gotten through all the posts about my trip to Japan and Hawaii? If not, click on the categories on the right side of the blog. But, I have more travel posts for you. I know, I know. I've had a lot of photo-dumping travel posts as of late. I promise that I do live a normal life. I have a normal job. I do normal things. And I will get back to posting more "normal" things. I just enjoy traveling and I've had some sweet opportunities to do so. And I like to document it all on my blog because someday, I'm going to print this baby in a book. Then, I'll have a scrapbook and journal to look back at and reminisce. Cool right? I've never been a cut-and-paste-a-flower or layer-three-colors-of-paper-under-this-picture crafty scrapbooker. I'm into memories with clean lines. So...someday, a book.

Anyway.

On New Year's Day, Wednesday, I flew from Salt Lake City direct to Paris, had a three-hour layover and then flew on to Stuttgart, Germany to meet up with KDJ at Fred and Linda's house. This was my second trip to visit them. You may recall my first trip in October 2010, when we went to Oberammergau for the Passion Play, was a rather magical trip.

Once again, I flew on SkyMiles, but this time I lucked out with First Class booking on the way there. Since my trip was going to be short, I was so grateful for the extra room and full flatbed recline of First Class so I could get some sleep and adjust myself to the time difference more quickly and easily. It worked like a charm and I can say I had very few ill effects from jet lag after I got there. Also as the plane was descending into Paris, we were coming through some clouds and every in every cloud we passed through, there was a rainbow. Every. Single. One. I had this overwhelming feeling of peace and hope. Renewal that comes with a new year. And a feeling that this trip would be just as magical as the last.

Flying into France.

Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport.

I arrived in Stuttgart on Thursday night, January 2nd at about 5pm after watching a beautiful sunset 30,000 feet in the sky. Since I was the only one in First Class on my flight from Paris to Stuttgart and I carried on my only suitcase, I was the first one off the plane and the very first one out the door. I didn't even have to go through customs because I'd done that in Paris and with all the open borders between EU states, I sailed right through and walked out right as Fred and Linda walked in to meet me. They whisked me home where I dropped off my stuff and then we were off to meet Kate and some of her friends at Breuningerland, which is a large shopping mall. Kate and I ate pizza with a few friends from the Stuttgart International Ward: Emily, Janie, and Kristen. They were there for after-Christmas shopping. The stores were open until 10pm, which was pushing it for me. I started getting sleepy around 830pm, but I pushed through. I was also feeling a cold coming on, so Emily walked me straight over to the German Apotheke and helped me get some good throat lozenges and Zink tablets to help keep the cold quick and easy, which it was. That stop at the Apotheke turned out to be a lifesaver.

When I first arrived, one of the first things Linda said to me was that she hoped I hadn't come to Germany to rest because she had the next four and a half days all planned:

Friday: Colmar and Riquewihr, France
Saturday: Rothenburg, Germany
Sunday: Church and then to Heidelberg directly following
Monday: downtown Stuttgart and The Ritter Sport Factory (sadly, this didn't happen because we all forgot, despite talking about it all weekend, that Monday was Epiphany or Three Kings Day, a holiday in Germany, so everything was closed.
Tuesday: Fly home. Yes, it was a quick trip.

As you can imagine, and if you're a follower of this blog you'll know, I have numerous photos (like a few hundred). So if you're ready for several posts of photo-dumping, stay tuned. First up with be a few posts about our Friday, January 3rd day trip to Colmar and Riquewihr. I have 94 pictures from Colmar alone... I'll try to pick only the best ones. But still, I'll probably post 50, so get ready.

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Random: Sunset.

"Because it's summer and memories are just waiting to be made."

~eclaires

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Cruising to Hawaii.

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."

~Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)

Following a horrendous sickness (yet again) over Christmas and into the New Year, we embarked on a much-needed (and deserved, in my opinion) vacation, a cruise on Princess Cruises to Hawaii. Mom, Stephen, Shep, and Stephen's brother and wife (Jeff and Linda) and mother and father (Virginia and Karl).

We departed from Long Beach, California so we went down to visit Grandpa first and also Shep and I visited my Dad and Nancy. They drove us to the ship on Wednesday morning, January 2nd. Never having been on a cruise before, I didn't know what to expect. But Nancy just kept telling me how big the ship would be and she was right. When we arrived at the port, I couldn't believe how huge it was.

Prior to boarding, we left our luggage with a purser, who would load the luggage on one of the lower decks and get it to our room for us. As we were walking the corridors toward our entrance, I actually saw my red bag being loaded, a real fluke, since there were thousands of pieces of luggage!

If you've ever been on a cruise, then you know that the first thing that happens once everyone is on board is the emergency call reporting to your muster station. This means that you grab your life jacket, follow the route to your assigned muster station and then go through the drill and instructions in case of an emergency.

They point out all the lifeboats on the side of the ship, which are closest to your station. These boats, though dwarfed by the size of the ship itself, can actually hold nearly 100 people each, I think.

After our muster station drill, we were off to sea.

The next few days we were at sea, and I was adjusting to a room with no windows (inside cabin) and feeling slightly seasick. It didn't help my mood that Mom ended up getting the sickness that I was getting over and spent the next week (out of two) in bed. I know it's not my fault that she got sick, but it kind of was and I had a hard time getting over it because I knew how sick she felt. I had been there. And it was awful. But she tells me I can't dwell on that part of the trip, so months later, as I write this, I'm still trying to get over it.

Being at sea was an adjustment for a number of reasons. I did feel a bit queasy, which was remedied fairly quickly with a few doses of meclizine, thanks to Dr. (Uncle) Jeffrey. But I also had to get used to the idea of not doing anything. When you work day in and day out, sometimes it's hard to truly relax on a vacation. I ended up walking the ship quite a bit, watching movies on the upper deck at night in their "Movies Under the Stars" upper deck "theater," playing cards, reading,watching movies in my room with Shep, etc. Eating was also a big part of the entertainment.

They have big buffets at breakfast and lunch, with lots of fresh fruit, and just about everything you might want. Dinner was a sit-down affair with a waiter, and waiter's assistant. They were extremely attentive and encouraged us to order as much as we wanted, even if it was just to be able to taste a dish. Kind of decadent, if you ask me. But it was fun. I had a shrimp cocktail nearly every night.

Stay tuned for our first stop at Hilo, after four days at sea, on the big island (Hawaii).

(Written July 24, 2013)
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South Dakota and beyond. Day Three: Part Two: Crazy Horse.

"My lands are where my dead lie buried."

~Crazy Horse

After spending the day at Reptile Gardens and dinner at Desperados in Hill City, we headed to Crazy Horse. Brian had read ahead and learned that we could bring two cans of food (or something like that) and forgo the entrance fee. Leave it to Brian!

Prior to coming to South Dakota, I had never even heard of the Crazy Horse Memorial. Of course, I knew about Crazy Horse and the Lakota Indians and the Battle of Little Big Horn, but the memorial in stone to Crazy Horse is like the best kept secret of the Black Hills.

While there, I learned that maybe that's due to the fact that sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-1982) never accepted federal funding for the project. He, in fact, twice turned down offers from the government and instead felt Crazy Horse should be built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. Unfortunately, without the powerful financial backing of the state or federal government, I think they are lacking a bit in the marketing department.

For a little background, Korczak Ziolkowski, born in Boston of Polish descent, received a letter from Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear inviting him to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse after learning of the sculptor when Korczak won first prize at the 1939 New York World's Fair. 

Photo found here.

"My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes also," he wrote, referring to Mount Rushmore just 15 miles east of the Crazy Horse site in the Black Hills.

Over the next several years, Korczak began preparing and planning for the monument, until June 3, 1948 when the site was dedicated and the first blast occurred. As you can see, the carving is a very slow-going process (no big financial backers) and in the past 64 years, only the face is really carved out. If it's taken 64 years to only do the face, it will take 500 years to do the rest.

This made me very sad, actually. Although Korczak believe in the free enterprise system, and only wanted the interested public to contribute, I feel that his wife and children who work together with the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation Board of Directors in continuing the work, should allow the Federal government to donate, as a way of apologizing for what "the white man" did to the Native Americans by taking their land and killing their people. For heavens sake, Crazy Horse was murdered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska under a flag of truce on September 6, 1877 by an American soldier. He was stabbed in the back, quite literally. Don't you think "we" need to make amends for that? And don't you think the Lakota people (and Korczak's family and the Board) need to accept forgiveness? I do.

While touring the site, I felt a very real, almost tangible, spirit. The Black Hills is sacred land to the Native Americans, and I felt that. The experience was sacred. There was a feeling that I can't quite describe that made me feel very emotional, very connected, and yearning for a brighter day. 

As the evening arrived, I felt the sacred feeling of this area even more. I think this is one reason I feel strongly that they should acceptance financial donations from the federal government. To me that would symbolize forgiveness, giving and accepting. Righting a wrong to the best of our modern-day ability. It would symbolize and hopefully effect a merging of two cultures. We're all brothers and sisters.

We decided to stay for the evening laser-light show, which admittedly, seemed a little hokey. The show tells the story in lights, "illuminates our cultural diversities, celebrates our similarities, and encourages harmony among all people."

See what it will look like someday? I just hope it doesn't take 500 years... that's no way to honor Crazy Horse.

During the show, I dropped my small brown bag with the silver charm of the Crazy Horse Memorial that I had just purchased. I had a really hard time enjoying and concentrating on the show because I was paranoid about my charm.

We were sitting on a raise wooden deck and I thought it had slipped through the cracks. As my Mom has often said, 95% of the things we worry about aren't worth worrying about... after the show, I found the bag. Silly me.

On the way out we walked past one of the old engines used in the project, as well as a pile of rock that has been blasted off the mountain. We were allowed to take a couple home to remember.

This visit was one of the best surprises of the trip.

The vision of the future Crazy Horse includes an Indian Museum of North America, an Indian University of North American and Medical Training Center, as well as the Visitor's Complex, and will look something like this.

Photo found here.

So donate NOW!

(Written July 13, 2013)

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